The main problem with this deck is that it
may end up gracing shelves of collectors, and never get used in the real world.

It is not however, in my opinion, a deck for
beginners. This is a deck for intermediate to advanced readers. It’s a reading
deck folks. So let’s look at it from a few different angles as I pontificate.

This deck is not based on either Hermetic or
Hebrew Kaballah, Crowley’s Thoth, Rider’s Waite Smith, Etteilla’s Book of
Thoth, not a Tarot de Marseille or Piedmontese… It’s constructed on and of its
own architecture.

Hold up a sec. Let’s look at what the
marketing hype says…

Amazon sez: “The
project revolves around the works of fictional Alchemist, a mysterious
manuscript and a deck or [sic] Tarot cards, both coded with a complex cipher.
Inspired from Leonardo da Vinci's codes, the Voynich Manuscript along with the
oldest surviving decks or tarot cards, the deck is full of symbols, allegorical
images and esoteric languages, echoing a sense of magic and mystery typical of
time where ancient myths and new ideas were fused. Andrea Aste. This set
contains 80 cards and 160 page colour book. Cards measure 66 x 120 mm. Magnetic
hard-box containing cards and book measures 205 x 135 x 50mm.”

It doesn’t say that the art
is reminiscent of Picasso, or Enzo Viviani, playful and joyous. In fact it says
little.

Llewellyn: “Enter a parallel
world where tarot comes to life. Designed by artist Andrea Aste to look like it
was created during the era of the master alchemists, the Lost Code of
Tarot is full of allegorical images and esoteric languages. Inspired
by the codes of Leonardo da Vinci, this deck is reminiscent of a time when
science and magic were fused together and a place where wisdom emerges from the
space between the lines.”

Yeah yeah yeah but none of that captures what
the deck really is. It’s really much deeper. It’s “bigger on the inside”.
Marketing folks don’t get more than a glance inside. They don’t convey how it
looks. How it reads. How it handles in the curves.

Let’s say you want to read with RWS meanings.
And you want to read pip cards, and don’t really want to learn a new system…so
overlay meanings with this deck. Read Crowley but don’t feel like Harris today?
So pick up this deck and overlay meanings. Marseilles? Overlay.

This deck is whimsical. It’s fun. You are
invited to enter the fantastical backstory, but it is not really necessary. The
images contain all the accepted bits from the standard tarots.

Cosmetically the deck is printed with black,
and bits of red ink, on a sepia base. The limited palette conveys the work
well.

Beauty conveyed through complex simplicity.

It emotes.

That makes it even more fun. Then when you figure out the labels used on the
cards, and learn the marking for the suit majors, it’s even more fun.

There’s one page in the book that tells you
how to decode the ‘language’ of the deck. Other than that – you’re on your own.
And that makes it even more fun.

Enrique Enriquez once said, "Every time
we blink the tarot suffers another mutilation. It has become whatever an editor
wants it to be. This process has evolved as one might expect, starting in the
18th century as a concoction whose main ingredient was the ego of several
successive authors, by the 20th century becoming a set of inventions motivated
by pure financial interest. The market basically needs something new to sell
every month: “If we already sold the Kabala, and the mermaids, now we can sell
the Mermaid’s Kabala”.

Well The Lost Code of Tarot sidesteps this
entire issue. It is what you choose for it to be. It will morph into whatever
mythos you wish – in a whimsical manner. It
will give you what you give it. It will become, what you wish it to be.

Because this deck was produced with a
fictional backstory – you the user are simply free to use the art. Or the
backstory – or both. Or make your own.

The minors? They mean what you wish them to
mean. And like the history of the deck, are as malleable as you wish them to
be.

The extra two cards? I see them as "The
Questioner" and "The Elephant Carrying the World on its Back"